[Congressional Record Volume 152, Number 24 (Wednesday, March 1, 2006)]
[House]
[Pages H454-H455]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




   ADDRESS BY THE HONORABLE SILVIO BERLUSCONI, PRIME MINISTER OF THE 
                           REPUBLIC OF ITALY

  [Spoken in English:]
  Prime Minister BERLUSCONI. Mr. Speaker, Mr. Vice President, 
distinguished Members of Congress, it is an extraordinary honor to be 
invited to speak before you in the Capitol building, one of the great 
temples of democracy. I speak in representation and in the name of a 
country that has a deep friendship with the United States and is bound 
to your country by ties which go back many centuries.
  Many American citizens have Italian roots. For them, the United 
States was a land of opportunity that welcomed them generously, and 
they contributed their intelligence and their labor to help make 
America great. And I am proud to see that so many Italian-Americans are 
today Members of the Congress of the greatest democracy in the world.
  For my generation of Italians, the United States is the beacon of 
liberty, of civil and economic progress.
  I will always be grateful to the United States for having saved my 
country from fascism and Nazism at the cost of so many young American 
lives. I will always be grateful to the United States for defending 
Europe from the Soviet threat in the long decades of the Cold War. By 
devoting so much to this victorious struggle against communism, the 
United States enabled us Europeans to employ our precious resources in 
the recovery and development of our economies.
  I will always be grateful to the United States for having helped my 
country to climb out of poverty and achieve growth and prosperity after 
the Second World War thanks to the generosity of the Marshall Plan.
  And today I am still grateful to the United States for the high price 
in lives you continue to pay in the fight against terrorism to assure 
our common security and defend human rights around the world.
  As I will never tire of repeating, when I see your flag, I do not 
merely see the flag of a great country. Above all, I see a symbol, a 
universal symbol of freedom and democracy.
  [Spoken in Italian:]
  Mr. Speaker, these sentiments have inspired all of my political 
activity and the action of the governments that I have had the honor of 
leading.
  The United States has always been able to count on a steadfast, loyal 
ally of the United States, ready to stand by you in defending liberty. 
We have demonstrated this wherever Italy's tangible help has been 
required, and we are deeply proud of this contribution.
  Some 40,000 of our troops are assigned exclusively to peacekeeping 
operations.
  In Afghanistan, we are now commanding NATO's ISAF mission.
  In Iraq, we are involved in bringing peace and building democracy.
  In the Balkans, Italy is now commanding the missions in Kosovo and 
Bosnia Herzegovina.
  We are also present in the Middle East, in Sudan and other parts of 
the world, and in every other place where gaping wounds must be healed.
  Mr. Speaker, before the barbaric attacks of September 11, Western 
countries basked in the certainty of their security. They basked in the 
certainty that, after the fall of the Berlin Wall, nothing could 
interfere with their civil and democratic life.
  In 2001, in the early days of my second government, I was called to 
chair the G8 summit in Genoa. After the conclusion of the summit's 
official program, the final dinner became a dinner among friends. At 
one point that evening, I sat back slightly from the table, almost an 
external observer, in order to enjoy the cordial discussion among the 
leaders of the largest industrial countries of the world.
  President Bush was chatting amiably with Prime Minister Junichiro 
Koizumi of Japan. Pearl Harbor and Hiroshima were but a distant memory. 
Prime Minister Blair was joking with Chancellor Schroeder. And the 
President of the Russian Federation, Vladimir Putin, was also talking 
with President Bush. The tragedy of the Second World War and the Cold 
War, which had lasted for so many years, was forgotten. I felt great 
pleasure inside. I thought that the world had in fact changed, and how 
different and peaceful it was the world we were handing to our 
children. An age of lasting peace beckoned.
  But just a few short months afterwards, the unthinkable occurred.
  September 11 marked the beginning of an entirely different type of 
war from those that spilled the blood of humankind in centuries past. 
It is not a conflict between states, nor a clash of civilizations, 
because it is not an attack by Islam on the West. The moderate Islam 
that is allied with Western democracies is itself a target of 
terrorists. Rather, this is an attack by radical fundamentalism, which 
uses terrorism against the advance of democracy in the world and 
dialogue among civilizations.
  Western democracies find themselves facing an assault by extremist 
organizations that strike at the innocent and threaten the basic values 
on which our civilization is founded.
  Democratic governments have a daunting task. They must ensure the 
security of their citizens and guarantee that they can live free from 
fear.
  This is the new frontier of liberty.
  Mr. Speaker, I am firmly convinced that in addition to the generous 
effort by your great country, a grand alliance of all democracies is 
needed to defend this frontier. It is only by joining the efforts of 
all the democracies on all continents that we will be able to free the 
world from the threat of international terrorism, from the fear of 
aggression by the forces of evil.

[[Page H455]]

  The battle to free ourselves from fear is by no means a battle to the 
exclusive benefit of the citizens who live in a democratic system. It 
is a battle that benefits above all those who today languish under 
authoritarian, repressive regimes.
  History has shown that the aspiration to democracy is universal and 
that liberty and democracy are contagious. When people are exposed to 
the winds of democracy, they inevitably demand respect for their right 
to freedom from their governments. You are well aware of that because 
your country is the leading force behind this wind of freedom.

  But there is another, equally important reason to forge a common 
strategy among all democracies.
  The United Nations forecasts that over the next 25 years the world's 
population will increase by another 2 billion people, but a large part 
of those 2 billion people will be born and will live in countries that 
today are on the fringes of affluence.
  So on the one hand, we will have 6 billion human beings living in 
destitution; and on the other, fewer than 2 billion living in wealth. 
Migratory pressures will inevitably soar.
  In order to prevent this from happening, and even more, to prevent 
hunger and desperation from generating hatred and being exploited by 
fundamentalists, we must raise those countries out of poverty and start 
them down the road to well-being. It is our moral duty, but it is also 
in our vital interest. This will only be possible if democracy is 
allowed to spread and strengthen. All of our efforts must therefore be 
directed at fostering the development of institutions that ensure good 
governance, the rule of law, respect for human rights, and free market 
economies in those countries.
  Only democracy can provide liberty, and only liberty can guarantee 
that individuals will be able to develop their talents, channel their 
energies, achieve their dreams, and conquer prosperity. The only 
possible road is to work together to spread democracy.
  My government has relentlessly sought to forge a grand alliance of 
all of the world's democracies. It is for this reason that I lent my 
vigorous support to President Bush's initiative to establish a U.N. 
Democracy Fund.
  It is for these reasons that I am convinced that the task that lies 
ahead of us is to promote a culture of respect for human rights and its 
fundamental freedoms in all countries.
  Mr. Speaker, if we are to complete this mission successfully, it is 
essential that the bonds linking the United States and the European 
Union remain strong and sound.
  It is this belief that prompted me to start a decisive, continuing 
diplomatic and political initiative with my European colleagues to 
ensure that the European Union did not weaken its ties to the United 
States in reaction to the events in Iraq.
  For the same reason, we cannot ignore the danger that a united Europe 
might seek to define its identity in contrast to America. The necessary 
political and institutional integration of Europe must not mean the 
creation of a ``Fortress Europe,'' closed to the rest of the world in 
the belief that in doing so it can preserve its prosperity and liberty.
  A conception of European unity founded on a fanciful wish for self-
sufficiency would be morally suspect and politically dangerous. 
Disagreement or, worse, opposition between the United States and Europe 
would be entirely unjustified and would jeopardize the security and 
prosperity of the entire world.
  The West is and shall remain one. We cannot have two Wests. Europe 
needs America and America needs Europe. This holds equally true on the 
political, economic, and military planes.
  It is therefore absolutely necessary, indeed fundamental, to sustain 
and reinvigorate the Atlantic Alliance, the alliance that for more than 
half a century has guaranteed peace in liberty.
  From defense alliance, NATO is gradually becoming a security 
organization. While defensive alliances are exclusive, created to 
protect against the threat of other blocs, organizations that protect 
security must be inclusive, because they become even more effective as 
the number of member countries increases.
  This is why I strongly supported the establishment of the NATO-Russia 
Council, bringing the Russian Federation into the security architecture 
of the free world.
  I am proud to have worked together with President Bush and President 
Putin to ensure that this came to pass, and that this momentous 
decision, which confirmed the Russian Federation's decision to join the 
West and embrace its values, would be consecrated in Italy, at the 
historic summit at Pratica di Mare, near Rome.
  That day in 2002 marked the end of the nightmare of mutual 
annihilation by two blocs in arms against each other that had lasted 
for more than half a century.
  NATO must remain the fundamental instrument to guarantee our 
security. The new European defense capability must therefore be 
complementary to NATO's. Together, NATO and the European Union shall be 
democracy's instruments for guaranteeing security in a globalizing 
world. I have always worked to achieve this objective, which I consider 
strategic, and will continue to do so.
  In this context, the United Nations through a process of reform will 
have to recover their central role to become more efficient and to be 
able to tackle the challenges of the new millennium.
  Mr. Speaker, our values of democracy and liberty allowed the West to 
ensure that their peoples enjoy a degree of prosperity unparalleled in 
the history of humankind. History has shown that only democracy permits 
a sound market economy to flourish, because political freedom and 
economic freedom are but two sides of the same coin.
  Nonetheless, we are aware that there are countries that are opening 
to the market economy, but where authentic democracy does yet not reign 
and human rights are not adequately respected. The more developed and 
democratic countries must therefore work with determination to ensure 
that everywhere the opening to the free market is accompanied by the 
strengthening of democratic institutions and respect for human rights.
  The market economy has always been a powerful drive for countries to 
transform from autocratic or authoritarian regimes into genuine 
democracies.
  Action to expand the market economy in the world is therefore a key 
part of our efforts to affirm our values, to affirm liberty for a 
safer, more prosperous and secure world.
  [Spoken in English:]
  Mr. Speaker, Mr. Vice President, distinguished Members of Congress, 
the bonds between Americans and Italians are strong and enduring. I am 
convinced that they will continue to strengthen and that the United 
States will always find in Italy a partner nation with which it can 
share the same vision of the world.
  Allow me to conclude by sharing with you a brief story. It is the 
story of a young man, one who had just graduated from high school. His 
father took him to a cemetery that was the final resting place for 
brave young soldiers, young people who had crossed an ocean to restore 
dignity and liberty to an oppressed people. In showing him those 
crosses, that father made his son vow never to forget the ultimate 
sacrifice those young American soldiers had made for his freedom. That 
father made his son vow eternal gratitude to that country.
  That father was my father, and that young man was me.
  I have never forgotten that sacrifice and that vow, and I never will.
  Thank you.
  [Applause, the Members rising.]
  At 11 o'clock and 35 minutes a.m., the Prime Minister of the Republic 
of Italy, accompanied by the committee of escort, retired from the Hall 
of the House of Representatives.
  The Deputy Sergeant at Arms escorted the invited guests from the 
Chamber in the following order:
  The Members of the President's Cabinet;
  The Dean of the Diplomatic Corps.

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